GALLERY
PAGE UPDATED: 18/01/06
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ABOVE - THE LAST NIGHT OF THE OLD STATION, EARLY 1983
TOP LEFT: GENERAL VIEW OF 'B' WING, BILL MCALLISTER JUST ABOUT STAYING AWAKE. A STRANGE COMBINATION OF OLD AND NEW TECHNOLOGY CAN BE SEEN.
TOP RIGHT: POINT 41 IN 'B' WING, SHOWING THE RACAL 1217 RECEIVER IN AN ENCLOSED STEEL CASE, A TREND TELEPRINTER MACHINE, A STALK MICROPHONE LINKED TO THE WTC (WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY CONTROL) POSITION, AND A TRANSMITTER SELECTOR UNIT CIRCA 1948! THE SWITCHES ABOVE THE RECEIVER WOULD SELECT THE LISTENING CHANNEL SHOULD THIS POINT BE USED AS A SEARCH POINT.
NEXT DOWN (LEFT): STEVE ALLISON ON POINT 42 (SEARCH POINT DURING THE NIGHT SHIFT - 2300-0800 LT)
NEXT DOWN (RIGHT): THE LATE FRED BLAND IN ACTION.
NEXT DOWN (LEFT): THE CONTROL ROOM WTC AND TRAFFIC LIST POSITION. NOTE THE TRAFFIC CAROUSEL DEVOID OF TRAFFIC (ALL TO-SHIP MESSAGES WERE NOW HELD ELECTRONICALLY) AND THE UNMANNED WTC POSITION (SHIPS WERE DISTRIBUTED TO THE WORKING POINTS AUTOMATICALLY). 'B' WING (RADIOTELEX AND LANDLINE) CAN BE SEEN THROUGH THE GLASS. THE PRINTERS IN THE FOREGROUND WOULD PRINT OUT HOURLY STATISTICS OF VESSELS WORKED, NUMBER OF TELEGRAMS SENT/RECEIVED EACH HOUR ETC...
NEXT DOWN (RIGHT): ROGER MARSHALL AT THE OWS (OCEAN WEATHER SERVICE) POSITION AT THE END OF 'A' WING. WEATHER REPORTS WERE LINKED TO BRACKNELL FROM THE 4 NORTH ATLANTIC WEATHER SHIPS BY RADIOTELEX, WHO WOULD BE 'POLLED' AT SCHEDULED TIMES TO OBTAIN THEIR REPORTS.
NEXT DOWN (LEFT): CHARLIE MERRILEES IN THE RADIOTELEX SECTION ('B' WING).
NEXT DOWN (RIGHT): ANOTHER VIEW OF THE RADIOTELEX ROOM SHOWING THE POST OFFICE TYPE 15 TELEPRINTERS IN SOUNDPROOF (WEEL, ALMOST) CABINETS. ANOTHER CAROUSEL HELD TO-SHIP RADIOTELEX MESSAGES ON 5-UNIT TAPE.
BOTTOM LEFT: GENERAL VIEW OF 'A' WING, NORMALLY UNMANNED DURING THE NIGHT SHIFT APART FROM THE OCEAN WEATHER SERVICE SEEN THROUGH THE GLASS.
BOTTOM RIGHT: GENERAL VIEW OF 'D' WING (CONSTRUCTED 1972) AGAIN EMPTY DURING THE NIGHT SHIFT. USED MAINLY FOR 22 MHZ W/T TRAFFIC DURING THE DAY. NOTE THE MORE MODERN CONSOLE UNITS.
(ABOVE PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF DAVE DREW)
SOMERTON RADIO
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Some general views of the Somerton R/T consoles, which were manned by GKA staff from 1971-1983. R/Os may remember the 'Somerton Bus' from Highbridge, driven by 'Rapid' Ron Westlake.
PICTURES COURTESY MIKE ANDERSON
RUGBY RADIO
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Views of the Rugby Transmitters and RLP (Rotating Log Periodic) antenna, in use until the station closedown in April 2000.
PICTURES COURTESY MIKE ANDERSON
MORE PHOTOS
R/O Roger Marshall in action. c. 1990. Note the VDU display for displaying telegrams both to-ship and from-ship (via the Burnham Message Handling System (BMHS)) and the selection of morse keys in use.
(PICTURE COURTESY OF ROGER MARSHALL)
The legendary (and youthful) Clive Puttock in full flow circa 1985. At this time the station was using 'Trend' teleprinters for the display and reception of telegrams. These were in effect primitive computers with integral dot matrix printers, notoriously unreliable and had to be cleaned on a weekly basis!
(Photograph courtesy John Davies)
Ken Strachan (foreground) and Vas Hira manning the search points circa 1985. A better view of the Trend teleprinters. The paper was held on a roller, and in a bizarre cost-cutting exercise, used rolls had to be rewound by hand and the unused side used again!
(Photograph courtesy John Davies)
R/Os Roger Marshall (L) and Ian Benfield (R) manning the aero and maritime R/T consoles . Note the array of speakers on top of the consoles, each speaker set on one particular spot frequency. On hearing a call, the operator would hurriedly retune his transmitter to the associated frequency by use of quick-tune remotely controlled transmitters at Rugby.
(PICTURE COURTESY OF ROGER MARSHALL)
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Left: The Last QSL - Thanks to Day Watson.
Right: The closedown amateur radio event QSL Card - thanks to John Davies.
Some snapshots of the old station circa 1981/1982, courtesy Robin Hargreaves and John Davies
The landline area (B Wing) looking towards the control room. Plenty of GPO Type 15 Telex Machines on the left (used to send outgoing telexes). and the bank on the far right was to receive incoming telexes on 46441 POGKA G. The near right area was a recently-added radiotelex position, overflowing from the original area to the right of this photograph. Note the famous steel map of the world in the control room.
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The R/T area at the end of C Wing. In addition to these circuits, R/Os were taken to Somerton Radio by coach to man extra HF channels. Gil Elks on the extreme right, Martin Davies on the left (picture courtesy of John Davies).
The radiotelex area in B Wing. Incoming telexes on 46116 POGKA G were received on the machines in the far centre, and were translated onto 5-unit tape using the reperferator machines housed in the silver-grey cabinet. Note the skeds for GYND, GXOF and GBSA on the board.
THE FAMOUS STATION CATS
SPARKS IN RELAXED MODE
SAILOR IN C WING, AMONGST SUCH LUMINARIES AS KEN BEGBIE, KEN WALTON AND EDDIE KENNEDY
REGRETTABLY, BOTH CATS ARE NO LONGER WITH US.
PICTURES COURTESY OF JOHN DAVIES
THE FINAL FINAL - THE DISMANTLING OF GKA (PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVE BENTLEY)
The end is nigh - One of the last R/T consoles being dismantled.
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© Larry Bennett 2004